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Query: UMLS:C0008031 (chest pain)
 17,248 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A case report of mesenteric venous thrombosis with small bowel infarction in a 38-year-old woman who had been taking oral contraceptives is reported. The patient was admitted complaining of severe abdominal pain and vomiting for 36 hours. On admission, temperature was 37.5 degrees C and pulse 120/minute. Abdominal rigidity and left-sided abdominal tenderness were present. X-ray of the abdomen showed 2 distended loops of small bowel and 3 fluid levels. Serum amylase was normal. White cell count was 10,000/cu mm. There was a history of abdominal pain and diarrhea over a period of several years. For 6 months she had been taking Ovulen (mestranol .1 mg and ethynodiol diacetate .5 mg) for menstrual irregularity. 2 weeks earlier she had suffered an influenzalike illness with pleuristic chest pain, loin pain, urinary frequency, and dysuria. Chest X-ray and intravenous pylography were then reported as normal. At immediate operation, a 15 cm segment of ileum was found to be infarcted. Semipurulent fluid was present in the abdomen and areas of fibrinous peritonitis were observed. The involved segment of ileum was resected. A small thrombus was extracted from a mesenteric vein. Initial postoperative course was good but 3 days after operation chest pain, dyspnea, and giddiness developed and cardiac arrest followed. Resuscitation was successful. Pulmonary angiography then showed thrombi in all branches of the pulmonary artery. After heparin therapy symptoms improved and the patient left the hospital in 2 weeks, her condition being stabilized with warfarin and dipyridamole (Persantin). The diagnosis was confirmed by histological examination. Early recanalization of a mesenteric vein was noted. Other reported cases have shown an average prodromal phase of 4 or 5 days. The long-term diarrhea was considered as not connected with the present illness but the presumed influenza illness 2 weeks earlier may have been due to a pulmonary embolism. Of reported cases, 5 of 13 have died. Early diagnosis, prompt surgery, and heparin therpay are considered important.
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PMID:Mesenteric venous thrombosis associated with oral contraceptives: a case report. 106 70

Within the health care of the elderly with prevention, diagnosis, therapy, rehabilitation, nursing care and social service, diagnostic procedures are of great importance to avoid under- and over-diagnosis. Many diagnostic difficulties exist in elderly patients such as changed reference values, changed normal values and changed signs and symptoms. Well-known examples of conditions which are likely to be under-diagnosed include depression and urinary incontinence. Examples are given from the cardiopulmonary field where e.g. dyspnoea showed to be very common, but in only 36% of males and 52% in females related to cardiac failure or pulmonary disease. The most common symptom of acute myocardial infarction in elderly patients was shown to be dyspnoea, whereas chest pain occurred in only one fifth of the cases. In another study of patients with ulcer disease loss of appetite and weight, nausea and anemia were more common than abdominal pain and heartburn. In peritonitis patients, abdominal pain was observed in only just more than half of the cases and guarding and/or abdominal rigidity in about one third. In patients with suspect age dementia a detailed investigation showed the prevalence of organic dementia to be 89% whereas 3% had treatable dementia and 8% non-dementia conditions. In geriatric long-term patients the mean hearing loss in the speech area was about 50 dB, in spite of the fact that only about 10% of the patients had hearing aids. The need for nursing diagnosis is also obvious. It is concluded that a detailed multidisciplinary diagnostic investigation procedure is very important in geriatric medicine.
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PMID:The importance of diagnostic procedures to ensure quality of health care in geriatric medicine. Examples from recent studies. 198 60